Microblading Aftercare

**note: this post is not going to be the most organized, but it’s going to give you a day-by-day view of the aftercare process – which means a lot of bad selfies.

I did a ton of research prior to my microblading appointment and thought those blog posts other women wrote about their experiences with aftercare were really helpful. So I wanted to contribute as well! Original blog post about the microblading process can be found here.

A bit about me…

My brows are very light and super sparse at the tail ends. My skin is neutral to dry and I typically only use a cleaner that has salicylic acid, and a gel moisturizer. Over a year later, I have since upgraded my skincare routine to include more products, but at the time of microblading, my skin was fairly dry/neutral. This is important to note because having oilier skin may break down the pigments.

Wet vs. Dry Healing Method

I did more research on proper aftercare procedures and discovered 3 basic ways to care for your brows post-procedure:

• Wet Healing: this involves washing the area with mild soap and water and applying product to cover the brows.
• Dry Healing: pretty self-explanatory, so absolutely no moisture in the brow area and also no washing after the initial cleaning.
• Wet Healing without washing: this is probably the worst method because you’re allowing bacteria and germs to accumulate and you’re not cleansing the area at all.

I did a combination of the wet and dry method where I did not get the brows wet AT ALL for 3 days and continued to apply Hustle Butter until day 10, at which I stopped using anything altogether and only avoided using my facial cleanser in that area. Otherwise, I lived my life as normal (except the scabbing, but read more to find out!)

Day 1

Immediately after the initial session, the skin around my brows was red and stinging. It hurt a bit to furrow my brows and there seemed to be some “empty spaces,” which Soo had reassured me would go away once the pigments really rose to the surface of my skin and spread itself.

Days 2-3

My brows have gotten darker, which means the pigments have started to spread and fill in the empty spaces I noted before. I noticed some scabs start to form especially on the tail ends, and I get weird itches from time to time. I showed up to work with new brows after being away for 3 weeks and my coworker (who had also got her brows microbladed a few days ago) thought mine looked really natural!

Day 4

The brows are starting to get itchier, so I’m trying to be careful not to scratch on instinct!

Day 5

Overnight, some of the scabs near the end of my brows started to flake off. The color under the scabs is faint and light, but that’s because the skin hasn’t completely healed yet! In a week or so, the color should rise again and become darker.

Day 6

More scabs flaked off and I look ridiculous. It’s also itching a bit more and it’s so hard not to pick at the peeling scabs T_T

Day 7

More scabs have fallen off and I officially look ridiculous and I don’t want to be seen in public. Really grateful that I’m not single and trying to mingle lol! Not looking forward to a beach social I’m attending tomorrow for a friend’s goodbye party.

Day 8

The scabs at the end, where I originally had the least amount of eyebrow hair, have fallen off completely. I took a video rather than a picture today, so the screenshots are a bit blurry, sorry!

Day 9

The inner scabs have fallen off, leaving just a darker chunk in the middle. I’m excited for the rest to come off! My forehead has become increasingly riddled with small pimples because I have not been able to wash it properly with my usual salicylic acid cleanser 🙁 I can’t wear brow makeup until day 14. So I still need to go out in public like this.

Day 10

We’re on that last bit of scab and I’m so excited to look like normal again! I’ve also included what the scabs look like after they’ve fallen off. They’re similar to seaweed flakes.

Day 11

The color of the brows seem to have gotten a bit darker since the scabs came off. They’re supposed to continue to get darker as my skin hasn’t completely healed just yet. The end of my right brow is more defined than my left and my left brow needs filling at the top. That’s what the touch up appointment is for! My coworkers say they look so natural though!

Day 12

NO MORE SCABS!! I’ll admit though, I did peel some off with my fingernail because they were obviously about to come off, but they were hanging by a thread (my eyebrow hairs, that is) so I thought it couldn’t hurt. So I realized that my right tail is more blurred and less sharp than my left and I attribute that to the fact that I’m a side sleeper and I’m usually on my right side. I’ll be a bit more careful with that after my touch-up next month and I might wear Band-Aids on the ends. Otherwise, I think my brows look better and better as each day passes! I’m still being careful not to get too much water in them and as less sunlight as possible. Hopefully, if the process goes as it should, my brows will continue to darken in color.

Days 13 – 17

Nothing much has changed here. I feel like my brows haven’t gotten much darker so all I’ve been doing is plucking stray hairs that are far away enough from the brow itself. I could have started to use some brow makeup again from day 14 but I chose not since I didn’t feel like I needed it.

My left brow is definitely more defined than my right so I hope Soo can imitate that during our touch up.

Day 19

Nothing new! I can begin using eyebrow makeup again if I want to. I think I have just a tiny bit on in this picture.

Days 20 – 29

I started filling in my brow whenever I felt like it and it honestly takes me less than 30 seconds now with my Anastasia brow wiz pencil. Even though my brows aren’t as dark or full as I’d like them to be, I’m still very happy with how they turned out and the fact that I can wake up or come out of the shower with brows.

Day 30

Just 2 weeks left until my touch up appointment!

Day 43

It’s time for my touch up appointment to even the brows out and fill in any sparse areas. This session took less time, but hurt more. Apparently, your body remembers the pain and is less tolerant, so if you have a low pain tolerance, I would suggest asking your artist to use more numbing cream and leaving the cream on longer. Once again, Soo drew an outline of what the finished brows should look like, and once I gave my approval, I was back on the table with several rounds of numbing cream, scraping, and pigments covering my brows.

It feels like a dulled version of putting antiseptic wipes on a paper cut or some other open wound. Constant almost throbbing pain afterwards. But I’m done!

I have to go through the healing process all over again. This time I plan on having a layer of Hustle Butter on at all times for 10 days straight, and the occasional cleaning with mild soap once a day when I shower. My coworker tried this method and she didn’t scab.

In an effort to minimize sun exposure, I borrowed my mom’s visor.

And to prevent the ends of my brows from rubbing against my pillow since I’m a side sleeper, I used bandaids.

I may continue to use bandaids or just stick with bandaids on my right side since I typically sleep on my right. I don’t want to ruin the ends of my brows a second time around.

Day 46 (post touch-up day 4)

Pimples are forming everywhere that I can’t properly cleanse, and I’m starting to scab again! So my healing method failed.

Day 49 (post touch-up day 6)

The scabs have peeled mainly at the tail ends but you can’t really tell a color difference unless you look closely! This is huge relief.

Day 51 (post touch-up day 8)

Almost done scabbing!! The second time round was definitely less noticeable and my brows are darker than before the touch-up appointment.

Day 55 (post touch-up day 12)

Aaaaaand we’re done!!! It’s been a long 2 months, but my brows are officially all done scabbing. I think microblading was totally worth it for me and I can walk around feeling so confident that my brows are ON FLEEK. They aren’t perfectly symmetrical to each other, but I think that makes them look more natural. My right brow kind of dips on the top and the end is missing a bit of pigment, but overall I love them and I’m making Soo my go-to artist 🙂 Here’s her yelp page so check her out if you’re in the 626 area! https://www.yelp.com/biz/by-soo-cosmetic-tattoo-hacienda-heights?osq=by+soo

The first picture below is no makeup. In the second one, I touched up my brows very slightly with my Anastasia brow wiz pencil.

And THAT’S A WRAP! Please feel free to reach out if you have any specific questions 🙂

xx Sam